Page 11 - ARUBA TODAY

A11
WORLD NEWS Thursday 12 april 2018

Military plane crash is Algeria's worst aviation disaster

By AOMAR OUALI
Associated Press
ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) — A
hulking military transport
plane crashed just after
take-off Wednesday in the
worst aviation disaster in
Algeria's history, killing 257
people and plunging a
nation where soldiers are
especially esteemed into
mourning.
An investigation was im-
mediately ordered to de-
termine the cause of the
crash that killed soldiers,
their family members and
a group of 30 people re-
turning from hospital stays
in the capital to refugee
camps in the south.
The huge plane, a Russian
Il-76, crashed about 8 a.m.
"just after leaving the tar-
mac" of the military airport
in Boufarik, 30 kilometers
(20 miles) south of Algiers, Firefighters and civil security officers work at the scene of a fatal military plane crash in Boufarik, near the Algerian capital, Algiers,
Maj. Gen. Boualem Madhi Wednesday, April 11, 2018.
told the public TV station Associated Press
Canal Algerie. It crashed
into a field just outside the Tindouf then Bechar, in the plane crashed on its wing several of the planes. The army's experience
base and was devoured southwest, site of a military first and caught fire." A retired officer, Mohamed fighting terrorism has made
by flames, killing 247 pas- base, according to Farouk The victims' bodies were Khelfaoui, told the online it a valued ally of the U.S.
sengers and 10 crew mem- Achour, spokesman for Al- transported to the Algerian Algerian TSA site that he and other western nations.
bers, the Defense Ministry geria's civil protection ser- army's central hospital out- had flown in the aircraft The U.S. Embassy in Algiers
said. vices. Tindouf is home to side the capital. several times and "it has expressed its "deepest con-
Video on the state-TV many refugees from the Algeria is vast and plane proven itself in Algeria and dolences" to "our partners
channel ENTV showed a neighboring Western Sa- flights are often the best elsewhere." and colleagues in the Alge-
blackened hulk broken into hara, a disputed territory way to traverse Africa's It was not the worst crash of rian military," and their fam-
pieces, with huge wheels annexed by Morocco. largest nation. an Il-76. According to the ilies, among a numerous
scattered about along with There was no official men- It was the first crash of an Aviation Safety Network, condolences that flooded
other plane parts. Firefight- tion of survivors, but one wit- Algerian military plane the 2003 crash of an IL-76 into the capital from far
ers doused the flames while ness reported seeing some since February 2014, when of the Iranian Revolutionary and wide.
body bags were placed in people jump out of the air- a U.S.-built C-130 Hercules Guard killed 275 people. The previous deadliest
rows in the field. craft before it crashed. The turboprop slammed into The heavy loss of life of sol- crash on Algerian soil oc-
President Abdelaziz Boute- Araban-language Algerian a mountain in Algeria, kill- diers was certain to deeply curred in 2003, when 102
flika ordered three days of TV Dzair said five people ing at least 76 people and shake Algeria. The National people were killed after a
mourning starting immedi- were in a critical state but leaving just one survivor. Liberation Army — which civilian airliner crashed at
ately and prayers for the it was unclear if they had The four-engine Il-76 made grew out of the fighting the end of the runway in
dead on Friday at mosques been inside the plane. its maiden voyage in force which freed Algeria Tamanrasset, in the south.
across the country. Several witnesses told Al- 1997, according to Avia- from French colonial rule — There was a single survivor
In the south, the Algerian- gerian TV network Ennahar tion Safety Network. The is revered by Algerians. in that crash.
backed Polisario Front they saw flames coming plane has been in produc- Today, the army is credited Also in 2003, 10 people
seeking independence for out of one of the planes' tion since the 1970s, and is with saving the nation from died when an Algerian Air
Western Sahara ordered a engines just before it took widely used for both com- a deadly insurgency by Is- Force C-130 crashed af-
week of mourning for the off. mercial freight and military lamist extremists in the 1990s ter an engine caught fire
30 dead Sahrawi people "The plane started to rise transport. The Algerian mili- and early 2000s. The battle shortly after it took off from
from its refugee camps in before falling," an uniden- tary, which historically has continues with sporadic at- the air base near Boufarik,
Tindouf, a statement from tified man lying on what depended on the Soviet tacks around Algeria and according to the Aviation
the group said. seemed to be a hospital Union then Russia for mili- networks dismantled by sol- Safety Network.
The flight was headed to bed told Ennahar TV. "The tary hardware, operates diers. q